Legislators Fiddle over Solyndra Bankruptcy While Coal Burns U.S. ...: A new study on the true cost of coal powe...

The Yale study is the second time this year that researchers have raised serious questions about the true cost of coal. In January, the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published a Harvard University study on the full life cycle of coal , which like the Yale study argued that “externalized costs” such as health should be factored into the price of coal-generated electricity. The Harvard researchers arrived at an estimate that ranged from $175 billion to $523 billion annally. If those costs were factored into the price consumers pay for coal-generated electricity, the average cost of a kilowatt hour would be almost 18 cents higher than it is now. That would make the true cost of coal is far greater than the cost of renewable energy.